When comparing LastPass vs Google Hangouts, the Slant community recommends LastPass for most people. In the question“What are the most useful Android phone apps?”LastPass is ranked 8th while Google Hangouts is ranked 13th. The most important reason people chose LastPass is:

LastPass keeps an encrypted copy of all passwords locally as well as an encrypted copy on their servers. That way, passwords can be accessed locally while offline, or through their server while online from any machine.

Pros

Pro

Automatic cloud backup and cross-device sync

LastPass keeps an encrypted copy of all passwords locally as well as an encrypted copy on their servers. That way, passwords can be accessed locally while offline, or through their server while online from any machine.

Pro

All encryption and decryption is done locally

All the encryption and decryption is done by the client (JS/App) so even LastPass doesn't have access to passwords.

Pro

Seamless autofill and password generator via plugins for all popular browsers

All common browsers, including Opera, have plugins that allow automatically filling in forms and generating passwords. All form fill information syncs across all platforms, devices and browsers. Password generator can be adjusted to use or exclude certain characters and patterns.

Pro

Works with portable versions of Chrome and Firefox

Firefox 2+ on Windows, Mac & Linux as well as Chrome 4+ on Windows and Linux support a portable version of LastPass. Great for securely accessing LastPass Vault from public or untrusted computers.

Pro

Works on Linux

LastPass alongside KeePassX are the only cloud-syncing password managers that work on Linux.

Pro

Automatic security monitoring

LastPass will check for re-used and unsafe passwords.

Pro

Clean and intuitive UI

Since version 3.0 the LastPass interface is clean and easy to navigate on all platforms.

Pro

Does not require a standalone app

While many password managers require a standalone app to be installed on the system, LastPass does not and can function via browser plugins.

Pro

Fingerprint verification

Some fingerprint readers, like TouchID on iOS, Samsung, or Sony Xperia devices, can be set up to be used to access LastPass instead of a master password.

Pro

Allows sharing passwords with one person or a group of people

LastPass allows sharing login data for a site with another user of LastPass without exposing the password. Great for allowing friends, family or coworkers access a site.

Pro

Password one-click change

LastPass is able to change your password automagically.

Pro

Offers multiple export options

LastPass can dump the whole database as a .csv file or an encrypted file that can then be decrypted using LastPass Pocket as well as separately export Wi-Fi passwords and autofill information. Additional export options are available on a per-browser basis.

Pro

Can create one-time passwords for accessing the Vault

LastPass allows creating passwords for accessing the LastPass Vault that can only be used once. Great for accessing the Vault in public or untrusted places.

Pro

Yubikey support

Pro

Vetted by Steve Gibson

Steve Gibson is a well established security researcher best know for his work with Apple and Atari systems as well as founding Gibson Research Corporation. He was given access to LastPass' source code and confirmed that it's safe to trust its security.

Pro

Allows downloading an encrypted database backup that can only be decrypted with LastPass Pocket

LastPass Pocket is a standalone personal database decrypter. It's a portable executable, meaning it does not need to be installed, that is used to decrypt a local encrypted copy of the password database.

Pro

Military grade encryption

Pro

Works even with browsers that don't support plugins

Via a clever use of bookmarklets, LastPass works on browsers that don't inherently support bookmarklets, like Opera or Safari on iOS.

Pro

Credit monitoring in US

LastPass can be set to notify if a user's credit report suddenly changes.

Pro

Has native integration via app for Android

Fills in passwords in android apps without loading into LastPass directly.

Pro

Password security check up

Gives score based on password use and strength. Score is bad on other LastPass users and denotes where you fall in that group.

Pro

Works with Windows applications with native app

Can record the steps and use it to login to native Windows apps.

Pro

Great free features

A large amount of features for the free version.

Pro

Mobile support

Hangouts offers both an Android and iOS app so users can participate from nearly any mobile device in addition to his Desktop.

Pro

Screen sharing

Any user can share his screen (or only a specific desktop or window) while still continuing an audio conversation.

Pro

Free group video support

Hangouts works with up to 10 participants using video out of the box or up to 15 if you are a business, government or school. It determines who is the primary speaker at any given time, and the camera view automatically switches to that user.

Pro

Completely free

Google offers all features of Hangouts completely free. There are business, education and government solutions that increase the participant count to for video calls to 15 and offers support.

Pro

Easy to start using

Hangouts is integrated with Gmail & Google+, does not require you to download desktop software, and all chats can take place directly in your browser, significantly reducing the barrier to entry for a new user.

Pro

Cross platform

Hangouts work on Android, iOS, Chrome OS, web and as a Chrome extension.

Pro

Useful for businesses

Hangouts can scale to become a videoconferencing solution for an entire company, since the software can run on nearly all platforms. In fact, Google itself uses Hangouts as its meeting room video conference software.

Pro

Live broadcasting and instant recording

With Google+ “Hangouts on Air”, you can broadcast any hangout to an unlimited audience via your Goolge+ Profile or simply a generic YouTube link. Moreover, any Hangout on Air (public or private) is automatically saved as YouTube video that you can keep for private reference or use in any way that you would normally share a YouTube video. This allows you to record conversations without additional obtrusive software.

Pro

Google Voice integration

Allows for a fixed phone number, receiving and making calls. Calling US or Canada is free.

Pro

Integrates with Google Maps for sharing locations

When chatting with people while trying to plan a meet up, the share map button can be extremely useful.

Pro

Android app does both sms and hangouts messaging

Cons

Con

Not free/libre

This application is proprietary, and thus cannot be modified, freely distributed, or trusted to be secure.

Con

Forced cloud backup

The is no way to opt-out of saving all of passwords on LastPass servers.

Con

Has been hacked before

And becomes extra bad as you are forced to have everything at one central cloud place.

Con

When generating passwords, LastPass tends to put the wrong info in forms

For forms with both an email address and username, LastPass tends to mix up and overwrite information.

Con

Somewhat poor customer service

LastPass maintains a support forum which they mostly ignore, labeling it "mostly peer-to-peer support" leaving only their e-mail ticket system to turn to.

Con

Forgets to ask "add new site?" on some websites

So you are forced to add a new site manually, which takes too long (relatively speaking).

Con

Doesn't always log out when idle

This issue is especially common with the mobile app.

Con

History of bad support for the company behind LastPass

You never know how much you will pay for it because LogMeIn did the same with Hamachi product. Support will be bad.

Con

Very bad UX for sharing passwords with other people (in free version)

When on lastpass.com you update the contents of a password file, it gets updated only on your side, not on the side of people it is shared with (and the UI does not tell you anything about this).

Also, when you want to share a password file with someone, they often have trouble accessing it (bugs in registration or acceptation of the shared document).

Con

Recently doubled annual subscription rates

This applies even if you're a re-subscribing customer.

Con

No longer free

Least expensive plan is $2/month. Formerly, the lowest paid tier allowed sharing with family members. Now there's a family plan for $4/month.

Con

During login, application loads for a very long time

Con

Mobile apps are not intuitive

There are large differences between iOS and Android; as well as from the base desktop and cloud interfaces. Option A doesn’t correspond to the same thing across platforms. Functions have different names on different platforms, and under different settings.

Con

Poor video call quality

Only goes up to 720p30 + low bitrate.

Con

Lacking clients for older versions or windows/linux, etc.

Con

Not recommended for long sessions

Con

High hardware usage

Con

Won't work on Windows 8-style UI

As Hangouts uses a browser plugin on the desktop and it doesn't work with Windows 8-style UI, it has to be used in desktop mode.

Ad

Alternative Products

Each month, over 1.7 million people use Slant to find the best products and share their knowledge. Pick the tags you’re passionate about to get a personalized feed and begin contributing your knowledge.